Illegal immigration in the US
The Freedom of Migration Act (an outline) 1) The concept a) The free market system should govern immigration. b) The government should have no power to limit the freedom of Americans to hire foreigners. c) Commercial agencies should administer and control the flow of foreign workers, for profit. d) Rules governing migration of foreigners with the purpose of work or settlement in the U.S. should have incorporated provisions allowing government security agencies monitoring potential security threats. 2) The solution a) The only way that a foreigner could settle in the USA should be by finding employment here. b) Private employment agencies should, for a fee, manage the recruitment of foreigners, background checking, issuing ID cards, and keeping record of their employment. c) During the first 5 years of living in the USA, an alien worker should not be entitled to any social benefits available to citizens and permanent residents. d) After staying in the USA for five years, a foreign worker, his or her spouse, or a minor child should be entitled to obtain a status of the permanent resident, opening the venue to the citizenship. e) During the first five years of work in the USA, a foreigner should pay income taxes and Social Security taxes as everybody else. Temporary workers that decide to return to the country of origin should have they Social Security taxes refunded upon leaving the USA. 3) Fixing the current mess a) The government, both the legislative and executive branches need to acknowledge that the current immigration law has been bad from its origination and never was or could be effectively executed. b) Legislators need to apologize to the nation and to the illegal immigrants for creating such havoc. c) No amnesty for illegal aliens. The current immigration law is bad and it needs to be revoked. d) Illegal immigrants should register their presence in the USA by obtaining a worker’s ID from an employment agency and paying a standard processing fee. e) Illegal immigrants that could prove that they have stayed here for at least five years should be entitled to obtain a status of permanent resident, opening the venue to citizenship. f) Illegal immigrants registering their presence here should pay their past due taxes, with interest, if that is the case. Penalties for not paying taxes on time should be voided. g) There should be only one type of visa used for all foreigners working in the U.S. All presently used categories of workers' visas should be terminated. h) All family sponsored immigration should be terminated. i) All visa lottery programs should be terminated. j) All currently opened cases of family sponsored or visa lottery immigration should be honored and resolved on terms equal or better than those in force at the time the petition was filed. 4) Other a) Political refuges and other individuals admitted to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons should be assisted by private charitable organizations to register as alien workers and then follow the same path as all other foreigners settling here. b) Foreigners, which are rich enough to live here without working should be allowed to do so. ---- --HAK 00:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC) We do not have problem of illegal immigration, or the Smiths vs. the Joneses The approach to illegal immigration in the media, politics, and on this forum as well, can be compared to a discussion regarding what is better to eliminate a headache, brain surgery or an aspirin. Unless we find out what causes the headache, we would not know. Similarly, unless we name the real reason for illegal immigration, discussing remedies is pointless. Many Americans believe that it is within their constitutional right to hire whomever they please, including foreigners. Other Americans believe that when foreigners are employed in America, some Americans lose their jobs, and consequently their well-being suffers. Both these points of view can be questioned and often they are. The federal government has constitutional powers over foreign trade, and this power can be interpreted to cover hiring foreigners by American employers as well. Similarly, in some instances Americans do lose jobs when foreigners are hired. However, when foreigners work at lower wages, an additional value is created; i.e. one that partially benefits Americans in the lower costs of goods and services, and also is partially reinvested into the economy, creating new jobs. The current immigration law does not work. We can endlessly discuss if the law is bad or if people who do not respect this law behave badly. One of the ways to overcome this obstacle is by returning to the very basic concepts that this country was founded upon. Freedom of the individual to pursue happiness is an overriding principle. This freedom should be limited only if the freedoms of other individuals are endangered. For instance, when Mr. Smith fires his compatriot Mr. Jones and hires Mr. Gonzalez from Mexico, can Mr. Jones claim that his freedom has been endangered? Can it be claimed if, in order to regain comparable employment, Mr. Jones would be forced to relocate or would need to learn new skills? Let us assume that the well-being of Mr. Jones is a justifiable cause to limit the freedoms of Mr. Smith. This assumption makes sense, as statistically there are more Joneses than Smiths; therefore, if the case came to a democratic vote, these arguments (or Joneses) would prevail. Furthermore, let us assume that the Joneses voted for a law forbidding the Smiths from hiring foreigners. The Smiths consider this an infringement of their elementary freedoms, and do not feel morally obligated to obey this law. Similarly, Mr. Gonzales is not interested in obeying this law, either. Together, they could go into various creative arrangements to circumvent the law. The only countermeasures that the Joneses have would be in giving extra powers to the executive branch of the government. More police would need to be hired and they should have more authority to monitor the activities of citizens. However, the Joneses are not too eager to follow this path either, as bigger government means higher taxes. Furthermore, the Joneses realize that the policing powers once gained by the government can be easily turned against them in the next case. Consequently, the Joneses – despite voting for the law forbidding the Smiths from hiring foreigners – would never give the government enough powers to execute this law effectively. Does it sound familiar? Illegal immigrants become handy in this situation, as turning attention to them allows us to avoid facing the real conflict of interests between the Smiths and the Joneses. Tough law enforcement policies are easier to advocate when they are targeting foreigners, not citizens. However, Mr. Gonzales would not be crossing the border illegally if Mr. Smith is not offering a job. Consequently, all the social problems associated with illegal immigration are side effects of the unresolved conflict of interest between the Smiths and the Joneses. Bluntly speaking, we do not have a problem of illegal immigration. We have a fundamental disagreement between Americans on what it means to be an American here and now. More reading on this subject is available at my website http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com; in particular: • At my immigration home page, http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/immigration.htm there is a simple outline of the best possible solution of our current immigration dilemma. On this page there are also links to other immigration related information. • At http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/Migration.htm there is an essay explaining how immigration can either cause problems or build the wealth of the nation. • At http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/Neither.htm there is a text explaining why HR.4437 is bad and S.2611 is not good either. • The desperation of the anti-immigration proponents and how to satisfy Tom Tancredo, is discussed at http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/Desperation.htm . • I looked for other reports on immigration that are as comprehensive as mine are. When I could not find any, I placed a $200 challenge for the written report proving me wrong. I received some submissions and I gave awards. It could be fun reading about it: http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/$100_challenge.htm . • The wall on the Mexican border, in fact, is against American employers. Please read: http://www.henrykkowalczyk.com/comments.htm . The immigration mess is a result of the flaws in our current political system. We will not mend it by throwing immigrants out of the country or blocking new ones from coming. After we agree on the dispute between the Smiths and the Joneses, then we would be able to discuss how to deal with Gonzalezes that crossed the border illegally and now are trapped in this faulty system. --HAK 03:28, 13 December 2006 (UTC) The Issues Few in the United States doubt that the issue of illegal immigration is a large one. In the past year the subject has sparked protests both in support of illegals and against. There is widespread disagreement about what the right approach is, often even what the problem trying to be solved is. There seem to be multiple issues at stake. #Should we work harder to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country? #What sort of treatment should illegal immigrants already in the country receive? #Should it be easier for immigrants to enter the country legally? The first step in our critical thinking process about this issue is to follow the steps below. Let's fill in the blanks. Perception Assumptions *Assumption: Concerning illegal immigrations into the United States of America. The majority are crossings across the southern border from Mexico. Is this true? What alternatives are there to this thesis? Emotions Language All immigrants planning on gaining a citizenship should be ordered to learn American English by going to a government approved ESL (English as second language) school. Argument Fallacies Logic Problem Solving Entrance to the country Coherent argument for increased border enforcement Something like 13 million(!) people entered the country illegally. Points in favor of increased enforcement #We already have laws about legal immigration, so should they not be enforced? #A country without borders is no country at all. More than 40 middle-eastern men have already been captured at the Arizona border. #Its been done before: Under President Eisenhower, illegal immigration was dramatically reduced. Source: Yahoo News #Allowing illegal immigration in US weakens the rule of law in this country and make it appear that's OK or even good to break the law. # There is a security threat of leaving people free to enter whenever they want. # People are dying in the desert. # They take jobs away from legal low-income workers, including African-Americans and legal Latinos. # The housing needs of millions of illegal immigrants drive up the price of housing, particularly for those of our citizens at lower levels. # Great numbers of illegals carry no auto insurance. Innocent victims carry the burden of that. # Great numbers of illegals carry no health insurance. They get health care at hospital emergency rooms, where many do not pay, driving up hospital bills for all. Coherent argument against increased border enforcement It costs money to build and maintain a wall. Potentially given jobs to legal workers. Solving many unemployment problems. The U.S could use engineers and workers to maintain and it does help the economy tranfer money to the American People. Points against increased enforcement # Illegal immigrants provide cheap labor, good for economy. # People leaving oppressive regimes have a place to find sanctuary. # People improve their economic status by coming into US, some would have problems feeding their children otherwise. # People are already dying trying to avoid border patrol, if we ratchet it up will more die? # While illegal immigrants do not pay income taxes, they do pay implicit taxes and sales taxes. Numerous studies have shown that illegal immigrants add much much more to the GDP than they take away for this reason. Counterpoints against increased enforcement # Just because it is inexpensive, doesn't make it right. The key word here is "illegal," and it undermines our rule of law. # We are not the world's police force, but we can remain a safe haven. We should declare oppressive regimes as such, and work with the U.N. to establish trade embargos and such. # If we close the border, people won't die because they won't be crossing the desert wastelands illegally. # There is nothing cheap about illegal alien labor except to the employer. The rest of us pay a fortune in increased taxes to support the huge demand for social services demanded by illegals as well as crime caused by them. Treatment within the country Amnesty for longtime immigrants One proposal for treatment of longtime illegal immigrants is to grant them amnesty and a path to naturalization, aka legal status. Different individuals have different arguments about what this entails for more recent immigrants. Coherent argument for Amnesty The government should offer amnesty to the illegal immigrants because the government has no ability to single them out from citizens. : Dissent: Because we can't single out felons from innocents, we should also give them amnesty? Discovering an illegal immigrant is as simple as identifying their lack of Social Security Number. Felony treatment Another proposal is to treat illegal immigration as a felony; arresting, trying, and imprisoning illegal immigrants. Coherent argument for Felony treatment Should legal immigration be easier? Arguments for Arguments against Out-of-the-Box Ideas Open to Everyone * Allow all immigrants to enter the country legally who want to. If they need or want a better way of life, why should we prohibit it from them? * For every 25 immigrants from an adjacent country, annex 1 acre of land from the immigrants' country. * For every 25 immigrants from an non-adjancent country, charge that country (or erase from our debt to that country) the value of 1 acre of land. Immigrants guardianship * Immigrants should not be allowed to enter the country, unless there is a citizen responsible for both their actions and their living conditions. See Also * Illegal immigration in Mexico External links * What Is This "Crime," Really? * A sensible non-partisan proposal for US immigration Category:International affairs Category:Immigration Category:Controversies